Friday, June 03, 2005
Good Reading
On second thought, make that the best reading. What am I referring to? Why, the Bible, of course.
Cheat Seeking Missles turned me on to this David Gelernter Weekly Standard piece on Bible illiteracy in America. Gelernter addresses the need to teach the Bible as literature because of it's foundational importance in America.
God forbid we would allow people unintentional exposure to the most influential document in history.
Cheat Seeking Missles turned me on to this David Gelernter Weekly Standard piece on Bible illiteracy in America. Gelernter addresses the need to teach the Bible as literature because of it's foundational importance in America.
But can you teach the Bible as mere "literature" without flattening and misrepresenting it? How will you address the differences (which go right down to the ground) between Jews and Christians respecting the Bible? (The question is not so much how to spare Jewish sensibilities--minorities have rights, but so do majorities; the question is how to tell the truth.) What kind of parents leave their children's Bible education to the public schools, anyway? How do we go beyond public schools in attacking a nationwide problem of Bible illiteracy?He goes on to discuss the extreme historical signifigance of the Bible. This article is a must read, even if you are an avowed atheist. My favorite quote
Tricky questions.
AMERICAN HISTORY STARTS with the emergence of Puritanism in 16th-century Britain. The Bible was central to the founding and development of Puritanism. It was central to the emergence of modern Britain in the 16th and 17th centuries--and modern Britain was important in turn to America and to the whole world.
It's clear that any public school that teaches about America must teach about the Bible...But then, we run into stories like this one that Scotwise unearthed.
A hospital trust is considering removing Bibles from patients' bedsides for fear that they may be spreading the superbug MRSA, it emerged today....That last paragraph reveals all. I really hate it when people cook up excuses.
...Gideons International commissioned reports from medical consultants about the potential risk which found there was no danger, Mr Mair added.
The trust is also concerned that the Bibles are offending non-Christian patients.
God forbid we would allow people unintentional exposure to the most influential document in history.
